On Sunday, February 28, 3 astronauts will perform the first in a pair of International Space Station spacewalks to ready the station for solar array upgrades. How to watch live. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/watch-iss-spacewalk-feb-mar-2021…
Tag: the quest
Important milestone in the creation of a quantum computer
Quantum computer: One of the obstacles for progress in the quest for a working quantum computer has been that the working devices that go into a quantum computer and perform the actual calculations, the qubits, have hitherto been made by universities and in small numbers. But in recent years, a pan-European collaboration, in partnership with French microelectronics leader CEA-Leti, has been…
Oculus Quest 2 Offers a More Powerful Standalone VR Headset For $299
Facebook has unveiled the Oculus Quest 2, including its release date and price, and it promises to be a big leap over the original. Android Authority reports: The second-generation standalone, Android-powered virtual reality headset will be available on October 13 starting at $299 for a model with 64GB of storage, a full $100 below the price of the first Quest. Pre-orders…
Spintronics Researchers Demonstrate How to Process Magnetic Vortices for Data Storage
Research continues in a field which involves using the spin and magnetism of electrons in solid-state devices — spintronics. hackingbear shared this report from Nature:
Electric control of magnetic vortex dynamics in a reproducible way on an ultrafast time scale is a key element in the quest for efficient spintronic devices with low-energy consumption. Researchers in China and Germany demonstrated a simple…
The quest to find signs of ancient life on Mars
Mars may now be considered a barren, icy desert but did Earth’s nearest neighbour once harbour life? Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-07-quest-ancient-life-mars.html…
First measurement of spin-orbit alignment on planet Beta Pictoris b
Astronomers have made the first measurement of spin-orbit alignment for a distant ‘super-Jupiter’ planet, demonstrating a technique that could enable breakthroughs in the quest to understand how exoplanetary systems form and evolved. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-06-spin-orbit-alignment-planet-beta-pictoris.html…
Quantum effect observed in ‘large’ metal
In the world of materials science, sometimes main discoveries can be found in unexpected places. While working on the resistivity of a type of delafossite—PdCoO2—researchers at EPFL’s Laboratory of Quantum Materials discovered that the electrons in their sample did not behave entirely as expected. When a magnetic field was applied, the electrons retained signatures of their wave-like nature, which could be…
Facebook’s Oculus Is Developing a New Quest VR Headset
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Facebook’s Oculus division is building a new version of its Quest standalone virtual reality headset, but the device is facing potential delays due to the impact of Covid-19 on product development and the global supply chain. The social-networking giant is working on multiple potential successors to the Quest. Some models in advanced testing…
What are exoplanets?
Exoplanets are worlds orbiting distant stars. The history of our knowledge of exoplanets, the various types of exoplanets, how astronomers find them, and more, here. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/what-are-exoplanets…
Help find the location of newly discovered black holes in the LOFAR Radio Galaxy Zoo project
Scientists are asking for the public’s help to find the origin of hundreds of thousands of galaxies that have been discovered by the largest radio telescope ever built: LOFAR. Where do these mysterious objects that extend for thousands of light-years come from? A new citizen science project, LOFAR Radio Galaxy Zoo, gives anyone with a computer the exciting possibility to join…